Bizarre ending to forged campaign letter case in Chesco

WEST CHESTER — The case of an East Bradford couple charged with sending a scurrilous campaign letter attacking a Downingtown area district justice ended on a bizarre note Thursday, with the wife confined to a hospital stretcher in the courtroom and the husband tearfully reading her letter begging for leniency from the sentencing judge.

“Punish me!” cried Valerie Palfy, the wife of former candidate Donald Skomsky, as Common Pleas Court Judge William Mahon prepared to hand down his sentence on the two counts of forgery the couple had been found guilty of at a trial in January. “Don has been my sole caregiver. I have done nothing as much as he has with his life!”

Skomsky had been overcome with emotion as he tried to read the letter Palfy wrote to Mahon, in which she described her efforts to stop Amish friends from operating puppy mills, and instead make outdoor furniture, and how she had put herself through college and graduate school, making a comfortable home for her husband. as reasons for a light sentence.

“I am a person with high ideals and ethics,” Skomsky read while Palfy stroked his back from her prone position on the gurney, as two EMTs hovered over her, checking her blood pressure and giving her oxygen. Palfy, her head wrapped in a scarf, has been suffering from a vague but apparently debilitating cancer-like illness for several months, and had not been present at the trial two months ago. She said Thursday doctors had given her a year to live.

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In the end, Mahon — who had earlier accused the couple’s two attorneys of attempting to undermine the judicial process in the case — curtailed the proceeding and allowed Palfy to be taken away for medical attention. He imposed no punishment on her, and sentenced Skomsky to two years’ probation, which he will be allowed to complete without supervision.

“The consequences of this matter, the impact on the (political) system, have been absorbed and accommodated,” Mahon said, referring to the damaged reputation the county’s Democratic and Republican committees may have endured because of the letter, which the authors had implied had come from the parties and not themselves.

“You honor, thank you,” Skomsky said as Palfy was wheeled from the courtroom by the EMTs from TransCare, a private medical transportation service. “Good luck to you both,” the judge said.

The case began in May 2011, when Democratic and Republican voters in the Downingtown area received a letter that accused sitting Magisterial District Judge Rita Arnold of a variety of ethical and legal lapses during her tenure on the bench. The charges centered around her alleged handling of criminal cases involving her son, Forrest Solomon.

The letter was unsigned, but urged recipients to vote for Skomsky, who was running against Arnold on both party tickets in that month’s primary. Skomsky lost on both tickets.

The envelopes the letters came in contained return addresses making it appear as though they had come from the West Chester headquarters of the two parties. At court proceedings, the party chairmen — Democrat Michelle Vaughn and Republican Joseph “Skip” Brion — said they had been approached by voters angry at the tone of the letter and asking why it had been sent.

Chester County Detectives were able to ascertain that Palfy, 48, and Skomsky, 59, had been seen at two area Staples stores just before the letters were sent, making photocopies of a letter that contained a reference to Arnold. The couple had also been recognized as having collected information on Solomon’s court cases from the county Clerk of Courts office. They were charged with forgery and conspiracy, and Skomsky was charged with campaign law violations.

The couple fought the charges, and at trial Skomsky denied having sent the letter at all. He said the copies that he and Palfy made were of marketing material for his consulting business, Integrity Engineering. But he admitted that he had not directly looked at the copies of the documents Palfy copied that day when she purchased them.

The jury took less than 10 minutes to find them guilty.

The prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Max O’Keefe, on Thursday told Mahon that the sentencing guidelines for the couple indicated a punishment of probation would be appropriate, but that he had no specific recommendation for sentencing.

“The actions of these people in their conspiracy did confuse voters,” O’Keefe told Mahon. “It baffled voters, and caused the parties to have to take some action to rehabilitate their reputation in the community to erase the negative impact of the letters.”

Palfy, on the gurney, denied having had anything to do with sending the letters. “I have not done this, and I want to be heard,” she said, indicating that witnesses she would have called at trial were not allowed, even though her attorney, Joseph Silvestro of Media, had not referenced them during the trial.

Before sentencing, Mahon had to deal with the question of who represented Palfy and Skomsky — Silvestro, who handled the trial for both, or Jonathan Stanwood of Philadelphia. He said that Silvestro presented a conflict for the pair, since Skomsky’s testimony that he had not seen the copies Palfy made could have an adverse impact on her defense. He thus denied Stanwood’s motion to withdraw from representing Palfy, but also rejected Stanwood’s request for a continuance of the sentencing.

“I am just completely dismayed,” Mahon said, opining that the attorneys had “attempted to interfere” with the trial and sentencing. “This is why people don’t like lawyers. This is an abomination.”

During the interplay, Palfy became more and more agitated, attempting to calm Mahon by apologizing for not appearing at the trial. “I respect you,” she said. “I respect every judge who follows the letter of the law.” As she spoke, the TransCare EMTs said her blood pressure was rising and that she needed to be taken to the emergency room for treatment.

Mahon moved quickly to sentencing, and then cut the proceedings short when Palfy and Skomsky became emotional. Palfy was taken to a waiting medical van parked in the Justice Center’s loading dock.

Skomsky left the courthouse in the company of friends of the couple who had come to testify on their behalf, but without checking in at the county Adult Probation Office. A spokesman said that he would have to sign up for probation, even though the judge made his term non-reporting.